Legend of Dragoon: Catharsis of Spirit
by MoridinBelmont
Summary: The old spirits are lost.  The Dragoons long since dead.  Now, in this age of "peace" evil boils just under the surface.  A new generation of Dragoons must master new spirits and confront this threat before Endiness is thrown once again into war.


There is a story told, of a time long ago when humans were nothing but slaves to a race of winged entities called Winglies. The humans labored under these cruel oppressors for many generations before seven heroes gained the power of the dragon, and used it to strike back. A brutal war ensued, with the fate of an entire species on the line, until at last the humans prevailed. Many thousands of years later, these heroes appeared once more to save the human race, only to fade into obscurity once more. But what if the story didn't end there? What if one day, the power of the Dragoons would be needed again?

"...I said wake up, you sorry sack of shit!" Will's head exploded in pain as the hilt of his teacher's sword was brought down on his skull. "Ah, what the hell!" Rolling to avoid another blow, the teenager flung his blanket into the man's face as he reached back and drew his sword from its resting place by the tree. His mentor had no intention of slowing down, however, and slashed the cloth in two as he charged his lazy apprentice. Will's sloppy horizontal strike was easily ducked, and he would have suffered another painful hit if he hadn't thrown his knee towards the oncoming assailant. His master backed up with an upward slash to throw Will's weapon wide, and tried thrusting at his exposed torso. With no time left to think, the boy rushed in, barely sidestepping the blade, and rammed his shoulder into the man's chest. "What a way to wake up. Don't I at least get some lunch, you crotchety old badger?" The barrel chested man laughed and brought his sword down in an overhead strike, "If anyone else had tried this they would've killed you while you slept. Why would I feed an inattentive student?"

"I don't know, probably because they have laws that say you have to?" Will sidestepped and spun, using the hilt of his own blade to slap the sword away and slinging another horizontal cut into master Martin's arm. This one scored a thin scratch across his exposed skin and he immediately backed off. "You're getting better at reacting to a quick fight, but you sleep too lightly. Anyone with a mind to could walk right up to you and cut your throat." Will scoffed, smoothing back his shaggy brown hair, "You worry too much, dude. Nowadays everyone uses guns. Hell, I wouldn't be learning swordplay if you and dad hadn't forced me to." Martin cuffed him behind the ear, "Don't call me dude, you little prick. I'm your uncle, so show me some respect. Now let's get you back to your place, there ain't nothing else for me to teach you. The rest is all practice." And with that, the two set quietly to the task of breaking down the camp they had been living at for the last three weeks.

They were rattling back to town in Martin's old pickup truck when Will turned, "Hey, why was it suddenly so important for me to finish up my lesson's? You never seemed to be in a hurry before." His uncle just quietly stared ahead as he navigated the crowded streets, finally stopping at Will's house on Seles street. He grabbed his sword and duffel bag from the back seat and headed off towards the house. As he opened the door he jumped to the side as a bowl was sent flying where his head was just a second ago. "Hello to you too," He said sarcastically as his little sister pulled back to chuck her glass. "Hello my ass, you jerk! You took my MP3 player when you left! Give it back!" Rather than argue while dodging flying tableware, he reached into his pocket and tossed the little music player over to her.

Expecting more of a fight, she almost didn't react in time and had to reach to catch it before it smashed into the floor. To keep up appearances she glared daggers at him for a moment, then turned to leave. He stood in the front hall for a moment and listened to the noise of his house. The familiar banging and noises from the kitchen, this early in the afternoon, told him his mother was cooking up something big for his return. And if his sister Mary was close by then his brother should be -OOF! He staggered back as little Cameron threw a flying tackle into his knees. Will always told anyone who would listen that the boy had football instincts, if they could just get him over that shyness of his.

His uncle pushed the two of them out of the way as he took off in search of beer and sports, his massive claymore slung over his shoulder. Cam latched himself onto Martin's leg and rode the giant off towards the living room. Will took off toward the back of the house to toss his stuff into his room and saw his dad playing PlayStation again. Normally, when his dad's playing games, the world is dead to him, but this time he saw his father's eyes slide over him before returning to the screen. This was enough to set Will on edge. Nothing short of an impending catastrophe would hold dad's attention from his games. This uneasy feeling proved true when he opened the door to his room and saw that all of his stuff was gone. "Aw, HELL NO!" He could hear his mother speeding down the hall to clamp down on the offending profanity, but he couldn't tear his eyes away from the bare walls and empty floor. He felt his mother come up behind him and immediately started in on her, "Where the hell is all my stuff?" Instead of answering, she smacked him on the back of the head, "Stop saying that, you know how I feel about swearing." He turned around and glared at his mom, "Then somebody better explain why I'm the only one who got robbed." Even though his mom was 6 inches shorter than him, she quickly got into his face, "You better stop looking at me like that, or so help me I will take you down."

Enough embarrassing whoopings from his mother had trained him to back down whenever she started acting tough. Normally she was a very sweet woman, but when she started acting serious, she was scary. His shoulders slumped and he stared down at his boots, "I'm sorry." She crossed her arms and turned around, "You should be. Just back after three weeks and no hug, no kiss, just profanity and rudeness." Will smiled, she may be tough, but she wasn't sneaky. He grabbed her and pulled her into a big bear hug, causing her to scream and laugh at the same time. When he finally put her down, she was back to her usual smiling self, "Go ask your dad about your room, I've got to get back to supper." And with that, she took off. Dropping his bag and blade inside the door, Will walked back to the living room where his dad was still playing NHL 11. Martin and Cam had gotten there after making a detour in the kitchen, and Will took the last open spot on the couch.

"You want in?" He looked over at his dad, who hadn't turned his gaze from the screen when he spoke, "You know I don't play sports games. I came to ask about my room, now watch that guy." He quickly passed the puck just as a defense man checked him, "All your stuff's been sent ahead. You're moving in with your aunt for a while." The boy stared straight ahead for a minute, "And there's no way I'm getting out of this, huh?" His dad just grunted acknowledgment and continued. The boys all sat for a while, watching as the game ran into overtime just for them to lose. Around that time Will's sister Katy peeked in and announced dinner was ready. Without a word the lot of them rose from the couch and flooded into the kitchen. Before Will could take a bite, his mother spoke up, "Stop being so gloomy, our decision isn't going to change because you make faces."

"Easy for you to say, you don't have to put up with aunt Elena." She reached over and popped him again, "That's my sister you're insulting, boy." He looked over at her, "Well then you know how annoying she gets! Every time I go over there, she wants to pretend she's this cool older lady. It's embarrassing." She pointed her fork at him, "She's trying to have a relationship with you. You're one of her only nephews, and you refuse to have anything to do with her. Now you're going, and I don't care what you have to say." Will glared at Martin, "Is this why you carted me off to the woods? So they could ship me out without interference?" His uncle glared back, "You're sure acting tough for a little punk. And yeah, your mom asked me to keep you busy, so I decided to finish your lessons in one go."

"Well why can't we send Katy over there? She actually likes aunt Elena, and she gets along better with Maria."

His dad swallowed his food, "It's not like we picked one at random, Will. You're getting into too much trouble over here, so we figured a change of scenery might help." Will threw his fork down, "Mom thought, you mean. She's got you by the balls, and everyone here knows it." He just barely had time to finish his sentence before his dad nailed him across the jaw and threw him out of his seat, "I've had about enough of your attitude, boy. This ain't no democracy. It's a dictatorship, and I'm the dick. Now the next time you start running your mouth, I'll show you just how mean I can get." Then, as if nothing had happened, he sat back down and went back to eating.

A few days later Will was put on a bus to the city of Bale. He made the whole trip silently cursing his parents and looking unfriendly. Just as they were passing through the Limestone tunnel, however, he heard, "You don't look very happy." He glanced over at this new master of the obvious and instantly decided he wasn't gonna be an ass. The girl was very hot and women were Will's weakness, especially women like this. She was perfect, thin without being too skinny, light skin, and shining green eyes. She played with the end of her long red hair while she waited on him to say something. "Just dreading my newest living arrangements. My parents are sending me to live with my aunt." She smirked, "Let me guess, she's a horrible nag who still believes in capital punishment." Will chuckled, "No actually, just the opposite. She tries way too hard to be young. Always wanting to be 'awesome aunt Elena'."

"Oh no, that's even worse!" Will smiled, his spirits lifting quickly thanks to her, "I'm Will." She held out her hand for a handshake and giggled when he kissed the back of it, "A pleasure to meet you, Will, I'm Rebecca." They continued making polite conversation until the towers of old Indels castle appeared on the horizon. "So Will," she started, "where in Bale are you headed?" He dug into his pocket for a minute, then popped in a piece of butterscotch before answering, "Aunt Elena stays pretty close to the castle. She runs the museum wing up there." Will's new friend nodded, "I live pretty close by, myself. Maybe we'll see each other around sometime." He smiled, "That'd be cool, I need somebody to show me around. And I'd much rather have a pretty young lady with me."

Rebecca laughed, "Easy cowboy, flattery on the first date is wasted." Just as he was about to reply, the bus came rolling into the station and everyone moved at once to grab their stuff. The noise was so deafeningly loud that Will decided to just wait until they got off before speaking. After much jostling, everyone was finally outside and fanning out to find their respective rides. Will stood quietly, duffel bag and sword (wrapped in a tarp) in hand, when Rebecca came up behind him. "Please don't," he said, "those guess who games irritate me." The redhead walked around to face him, "Aw, how'd you know?" The boy smiled, "People standing behind me makes me twitchy. And anyone else would've been walking at a normal pace. Now, how about we walk home together?"

HONK!

"Or help me bury my aunt's body when strangle her for this?" She just laughed and grabbed a scrap of paper from her pocket. Using Will's shoulder, she scrawled a number and passed it off before walking into a crowd and out of sight.


End file.
